All posts in July 2021

There’s plenty of mystery about what’s mainly responsible for the expression of individual character in wine, but lend an ear to wine’s chattering classes right now, and you would think the matter has been settled once and for all in favor of . . .  soils. In the soil-as-primary-determinant-of-wine-character theory, it’s the mineral content and condition of dirt and rock…

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off was a George and Ira Gershwin hit that made its debut in the 1937 film Shall We Dance?, sung by another incomparable duo, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (watch the scene here). The tune’s lyricsinclude the by now iconic line “You say potato and I say potahto”  — a kind of anthem for couples who can’t seem to agree…

Planet wine is a heavily regulated old orb. Few people, I think, are aware that in addition to being subject to laws that govern the sale and consumption of alcohol, there are very detailed rules about what names can be attached to a bottle of wine. These are mostly rules associated with protected geographic appellations that link…

It’s a truism — perhaps by now a cliché — that wine is made in the vineyard. It’s a way of saying that winemakers who start with ripe, healthy fruit have most of the work done for them. The adage makes perfect sense when you consider that while grapes are still attached to a vine, they’re subject…

How mysterious is taste? Let’s begin by observing that by time-honored consensus, there’s no accounting for it. Meaning, as we take it, that there’s no way to demonstrate conclusively why one person is drawn to something another is repelled by or, on another level, is merely indifferent to. Reasons can always be brought forward to…